StringerBell wrote:

1) I will be cycling a new tank with Live-Rock. The TONGA rock looks amazing
to me, but also looks like it has more sensitive stuff which should be added
AFTER the initial cycling. Is there an "extra-hearty" type of Live-Rock that
should be used for cycling?

I don't know. Mine came from a local retailer and is probably originally from
Fiji. I like the looks of the Carribean rock that Foster & Smith sells, but
don't actually have any and don't have the facilities to cure it.

2) Can a FOWLR tank sustain inverts such as feather
dusters,crabs,Stars,urchins, shrimp etc?

Yes, to a certain extent. You will want to read up on these in the books you
have ordered. You will also have to be careful what fish you mix with what. From
what Fenner says about urchins, I would avoid them.

3)I have about 25 lbs of dead coral and rock left over from the good-old
days. Just curious---will organisms adopt it and start making it LIVE-ROCK
also, thereby increasing the natural filtration?

At least to some extent, yes.

4) What is this Bio-Spira stuff? I dont feel comfortable with it. My wife
picked some up when she bought the tank. Will it aid in stabilizing the
tank? Is it "may help,may not, but cant hurt"---or should I just avoid
using it completely?

From what I've read, it's a live culture of nitrifying bacteria. Some people
swear by it. If you use it, you need to provide a source of food for it. If you
remember the cycle, food turns to urine, which goes to ammonia, which goes to
nitrites, which goes to nitrates. You could buy a few fish and add the Bio-Spira
in a day or two as the ammonia level starts to come up, or you could add food to
the tank just as if there were fish in there. If the ammonia level hasn't
started to rise, the bacteria will die off.

George Patterson
Coffee is only a way of stealing time that should by rights belong to
your slightly older self.